Seriously, people. You did not just do this!
Oh, yes, you did.
Only 13.22%, or 2,761 of the 20,890 registered voters in North Miami Beach voted in today’s City Council election.
Of the 2,622 ballots cast in Group 5, some of them possibly legitimate, 1,357 voters think it’s perfectly acceptable to allow the most corrupt politician in Miami-Dade County keep his seat for another four years.
Unless, of course, Frantz Pierre gets arrested, which is a distinct possibility in the near future.
Equally incredulous, in the race for Group 7, out of 2,667 ballots cast, 48.71% of them were given to a completely unknown retired City of Miami police officer who has done nothing for the City of North Miami Beach. Fortunately, Marlen Martell was re-elected, even if only by a mere sixty nine votes.
The sorta good news is that in Group 3, where the least amount of ballots were cast, Phyllis Smith only garnered 41.43% of a total of 2,595 votes, forcing her into a runoff with Michael Joseph, who grabbed 32.18%.
Aside from a near typical North Miami Beach voter turnout for a non-mayoral election, which was upgraded from the usual “dismal” to a slightly more respectable “pathetic,” the fact remains that only 2,761 people, or about 6.5% of the entire population, decided an election on behalf of 43,000 residents.
The rest of the residents of North Miami Beach will unfortunately suffer the consequences of the 18,129 registered voters who couldn’t be bothered to care about the future of their own city.
As a result, you get one corruptocrat…
And a runoff.
Your only hope for redemption is that you have one more chance to keep North Miami Beach from a total epic fail by getting to the polls in two weeks. If you care about your community at all, you must vote for Michael Joseph and send the Squawking Yellow Parrot back to Montana.
Also, with any luck, the State Attorney will soon file charges against L’il Frantzie P so he can be removed from office.
In the meantime, city employees can protect themselves from Frantzie’s bullying and harassment by picking up a bottle of this:
Just sprinkle a little bit on the ground around you.
Then, when he gets close enough to smell his moth balls …
That should take care of the problem.
In all seriousness, though, if you are one of the 1,357 morally challenged idiots who voted for Frantz Pierre, you sent a loud and clear message that you are perfectly happy with corrupt government officials.
Mazel tov! You just got the government you deserve.
Good luck with that.
Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”
My wife and I went to the polls at the McDonald center around 6:30 last night. As we pull into the parking lot, we were approached by multiple people supporting Villard, Pierre, and Smith, with one of them actually opening my wife’s door after we were parked. They also were blocking the sidewalk to the entrance up to the demarcation line including Pierre himself. If this isn’t intimidation, I don’t know what is. I also couldn’t believe that some of the most outspoken people at council meetings were sitting there in support of Pierre wearing tshirts for him. I also received an email from another outspoken critic of the mayor claiming that “Donna’ (Donner) was behind some of the incumbents opponents because they would support the outsourcing of sanitation whereas Smith and Pierre were supposedly against it.
It is my belief that the charter needs to change to hold elections during the major elections in November when we always have a better turnout. The argument I always get against it is that less informed people would be voting for our local officials. It’s almost treated as a holiday so more people come out at that time.
I wonder if we can get a breakdown by precinct of the results so that we can see who carried where in the city. I think it may be time to move as well as you did.
The breakdown of each precinct was announced last night at City Hall. I imagine it will be posted on the city’s website soon.
I wish I could say it was nice to be back in NMB last night, but truthfully, I was happy to get out of there when it was over. If you stay there, good luck.
WOW! WOW! WOW! I suppose those who voted against those two “people” will be moving soon! Sad day in the city.
Same crap in every city. People are just so damn stupid. Obviously, elections should be held when more issues are being addressed. It’s such a waste of time and money having these little individual city elections.
It was good seeing you again Steph! I am to the point that I feel that I need to get with Marlen and start doing something about educating the youth in NMB as well as my people (hispanics) to understand the importance of these elections. I asked around to various neighbors and their response was “oh yeah I see the signs but have no clue who they are” are you kidding me? well now we got him again and this is what happens. I am APPALLED!!!!
Wake Up NMB!!! The Hayshuns came out and voted for every Hayshun on the ballot, whther they were corrupt or not, while the rest of NMB sat home and watched tv, leaving the good people who were in the race out of the running due to voter apathy.
Those that didn’t take the time to make the 15 minute trip to their voting pole and taking another ten minutes to vote insulted the efforts of those that put themselves out there to run for office.
When the NMB becomes just like North Miami, you have no one else to blame but yourself.
I wish I could say I didn’t predict the outcome, but I have lived here too long to be surprised. City Councils in every town are run by the people with the most organized machines. Sometimes groups just block vote for people who look like them, regardless of their rap sheet. In the mean time, I still love North Miami Beach and I’m not going anywhere. Loyalty is an undervalued commodity.
I thought loyalty was worth something, too. But eventually I got sick and tired of worrying about drive-bys, break-ins, police dog search teams in my back yard and helicopters overhead looking for suspects. I put my heart and soul into my community for 25 years, and it made no difference. There may be hope for NMB to recover one day, but I don’t have another 25 years to invest in a losing proposition. The outcome of yesterday’s election made me realize that most people don’t care about corruption. I do. Loyalty or not, I refuse to compromise my principles.
To say I’m disgusted is an understatement. The fact that Frantz Pee air has won another election is a blow to the civilized people in NMB where few exist anyway. People have no idea how their lives or their pocket book can be affected. If you have the people that TC is talking about take hold of our city just think what will happen to real estate prices here, not that they are so great, but they can get worse. Hey, at least we’ll have our own garbage department to be so proud of. Now we have a run-off, what will be NMB?
Listen guys, its not over yet. You could have TWO pissed off incumbents hell bent on showing each of you who’s the “real boss” unless we get Michael Joseph elected over incumbent Phyllis Smith in 2 weeks.
I think it’s time to have a lengthy conversation about Mr. Joseph.
So, Stephanie, looks like moving out of NMB was indeed a very good idea.
It was for me.
You all are giving Phyllis and Frantz a whole lot of power in your lives. Wow, just wow. It was a city council election that most people didn’t give a crap about. Only in the insular little world of local politics did it matter. People who cared about issues voted, the others didn’t. I’m sure it’s the same in Davie, Sunrise, and Cooper City. The grass is always greener where you are not the one spreading the the manure.
Stephanie,what is that freedom of speech?we Haitian understand your proceeding.365 days attack against councilman Frantz Pierre.May God bless you!
Elie, I have absolutely NOTHING against Haitians, so I hope you’re not implying that the only reason I’m after Frantz is because he’s Haitian. I’m attacking Frantz because he is corrupt. The same way that Myron Rosner was corrupt! I was really hoping that Ketley Joachim would win (who happens to be Haitian) because I know she is honest, is not susceptible to a power trip or corruption.
I personally feel the same way about Michael Joseph, who I think would make a much better elected official than Phyllis. But, since she employs the same lying tactics as Frantz, she’ll probably keep her seat, too.
Now that Frantzie managed to get his seat back (and I absolutely suspect foul play), I realize that the voters of North Miami Beach don’t care that he’s corrupt. All they seem to care about is keeping sanitation workers employed. If they like high crime and elected officials who abuse their position, fine with me. I don’t have to live there and, you’re right, I don’t even have to care anymore.
One thing you can bet, though. As soon as the election is over, I can guarantee you that sooner or later, the sanitation will be privatized and I can almost bet that both Frantz and Phyllis will vote to do it. This was just another campaign lie to get re-elected.
You are right, it will be privatized because cash speaks louder than votes. This is why corporate always wins.